Last week I wrote about how the role of the most senior tech ICs has changed. Today, I wanted to share some thoughts on a more difficult topic: how the role of junior software engineers, folks just starting out on their career, has changed or will change.
First, the good news. In last week’s post, I wrote this about senior folks:
It’s hard to admit where you’re wrong. It’s hard to go back to being a beginner.
Junior engineers don’t have this problem. They’re already beginners, and provided they approach the field with that mindset, that comes with a significant advantage. In any time of change, the people who can learn and adapt fastest are most likely to succeed. The senior’s advantage is that they have a lot of knowledge and context. The junior’s advantage is that they come in knowing that they need to learn, adapt, and change.
So far, those are the easy answers. Other than learning, what do junior engineers do?
To get an idea of this, I think we need to go look at other fields where similar transformations have happened. Notably, the transformation that separated the tasks of engineering and implementation , either automating the latter or passing it off to a different group of people.